The Solitary Rambler

I spend a morning in Wells, the smallest city in England, where cousins of mine once lived. I walk outside its wonderful cathedral, the lovely little lane nearby with its almshouses and the delightful Bishop’s Palace. By the afternoon I move on to tour the nearby town of Glastonbury before tackling the walk up to the fantastic landmark that is Glastonbury Tor.....

I had completed shooting for two films in the Mendip Hills during my stay with my Mum in July 2017. However, I chose to make the third one just outside the Mendips, i.e. in Wells and Glastonbury on the edge of the Somerset Levels. Wells was familiar to me as I had cousins living there for many years and I loved the city centre with the cathedral, so I felt it would be a nice place to film. Glastonbury I had only been to a few times in the past but, as I would be filming in Wells, it would be a good place to include in the same film as my cousins had a family connection in the town. It also meant I could feature the great Glastonbury Tor, a landmark I had seen many times, but had only actually visited once before.

I drove to Wells on the morning of Monday 17th July 2017 and parked on Westfield Road, which was close enough to walk into the city centre. My first shots in Wells were of St Cuthbert’s Church before walking on to the High Street, where I took many shots. Market Place was the next main location as there were lots of great shots to capture, particularly with part of the cathedral towering behind it. I then filmed outside the cathedral itself and the green in front of it. Next was nearby Vicars’ Close with its almshouses. Walking back towards Market Place I then filmed around Bishop's Palace, which was my last location of shooting in Wells.

Walking back to my car I drove towards Glastonbury, but stopped briefly in a layby just before the town to capture a long shot of Glastonbury Tor. Reaching Glastonbury I parked on St Edmund’s Road so, like when I parked in Wells earlier, it was only a short walk from there to the town centre. Most of my filming was carried out along the High Street, which included capturing a few close ups of some of the quirky shops. The filming then moved to Glastonbury Tor, so I shot scenes of the one mile walk from the town to this great landmark. As I climbed to the top there were many other people around but, bearing in mind this was a Monday, I was thankful I had not chosen to film here at the weekend as I’m sure it would be been a great deal busier. I managed to get some great shots of the Tor, however, and the remains of the church on its top.

I briefly got talking to a few people during my shoot on the top of Glastonbury Tor including a woman, who with several colleagues, was also filming around here. I also spoke to a young man, who I had seen in Glastonbury earlier as well as on the way up to the Tor. He had apologised when I first saw him, as he thought he had ruined one of my shots by walking in front of the camera whilst I was filming in the town centre. He hadn’t spoilt my shot at all, but I told him a little about my YouTube channel when he asked if I would be posting my footage of Glastonbury Tor online.

I worked on the editing of “Grand Tor of Glastonbury” about two months after the filming. I decided to use my favourite keyboard sounds for the musical soundtrack, the VP Soft strings, which were very prominent throughout this film. For the Glastonbury Tor scenes I also used “Dark Ooh” voices, which I felt added some dramatic effect for those particular sequences.